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How the Manchester Evening News reported the duty free seizures story earlier this month |
UK/AMERICAS. Leading travel retailer The Nuance Group North America has vigorously defended its role in the events surrounding the confiscation of duty free goods from 100 passengers on a Thomas Cook flight between Las Vegas and Manchester earlier this month.
As reported, the confiscations were made by UK Customs when the flight stopped at Glasgow on its way to Manchester, after the goods were found not to be carried in sealed STEB bags, as regulations require.
After the resulting disturbance was reported in the UK press, a spokesperson for Thomas Cook appeared to blame Las Vegas Airport for the confiscations, although subsequent feedback from one of the travellers onboard who contacted The Moodie Report suggested that the airline itself had conducted sales of duty free goods without using STEBs.
Nuance North America has confirmed to The Moodie Report that STEBs were not used in the 97 transactions it conducted with passengers onboard the flight concerned. However the retailer explained that its staff had not been informed that the flight would transit through Glasgow rather than direct to Manchester, and therefore believed that STEBs would not be required.
As initially reported, the bags carried by the affected passengers were stapled rather than sealed; but Nuance described this as standard practice at Las Vegas for travellers flying direct to their final destination.
The Nuance Group North America Vice President Buying, Merchandising and Operations Andrew Rattner said: “The stapling of the bags had absolutely nothing to do with the transportation of liquid and gels. This is a practice that is employed by the staff at this location for every duty free transaction, to ensure that product does not fall out of the bag during the transportation of the purchases from the store to the gate for delivery and to secure the duty free claim ticket to the bag.
“We are very aware of the protocol required for the transportation of liquids and gels through connecting airports in the EU, and to date we have had no issues with any of our airports in North America with regard to STEBs protocol. To date we have used almost 7,000 STEBs in Las Vegas.
“Had we known that this flight was connecting through Glasgow we would have used STEBs.”
Rattner added that flight information screens, flight schedules and ground crew all indicated that the flight concerned would arrive in Manchester without stopping. “Further we asked every passenger who made purchases of liquids whether in fact they had a connecting flight and if Manchester was their final destination. The answers we received were consistent with the flight information on the boarding pass and the information that was posted.”
Nuance also expressed its surprise that tobacco items had apparently been confiscated alongside liquor.
“We sincerely apologise to all of our Manchester-bound passengers for all the trouble they encountered, but we believe we handled their purchases in a manner that was consistent with the flight information we received,” said Rattner.
“As an added note, on Wednesday April 13 [nearly a week after the Glasgow incident -Ed] a Thomas Cook flight 125 left Las Vegas for Manchester, landing directly in Manchester without incident. We did not use STEBs for that flight as it was direct to Manchester. It is interesting to note that this flight carries the same number as the flight from the previous week which landed in Glasgow prior to Manchester.”
